Week one of new Premier League

Beginning 2023 we have the start of a new season – the first top‐ flight season since Division 1 was renamed the Premier League! Here are the results from Week 1:

OKMALTA.com 6‑2 Bank of Valletta

OKMALTA.com got the win they expected, though couldn’t do so without dropping two points against Bank of Valletta. The bankers opened strongly and ac‐ tually won their opening game of the season in a high‐scoring effort that finished 817‐830. Game 2 saw the bankers drop lower to their average game score as OK‐ MALTA.com rolled the highest team game of the season so far to see the reigning champions take a game back (842‐765). Game 3 was therefore the series clincher, and could not have been much closer: the champions showed their resolve and took the series‐ deciding game by just 4 pins as the final scores finished at 754‐ 750. High bowlers from this match‐up were Kenneth Arpa (OKMALTA.com – 648) and Steve Cassar (Bank of Valletta – 627).

Brutal Legendz 1‑7 Team BOOM

Brutal Legendz took a rare sin‐ gle point from their opening se‐ ries after drawing the final game of the night. Team BOOM made light work out of their opponents in the first couple games, winning both of them easily (615‐692 & 676‐810) to settle the total pinfall. Game 3, however, quickly became a low‐scoring bout from both ends. While Team BOOM’s scores in Game 3 faltered, Brutal Leg‐ endz’s new acquisition Melvin Galea spurred his side to level with their opponents through his 189 game to prevent the side being whitewashed – the final game finished tied at 704‐704. High bowlers from this match‐up were Melvin Galea (Brutal Leg‐ endz – 480) and Mark Spiteri (Team BOOM – 583).

Turu’s Knights 8‑0 Royal Shock

Turu’s Knights were the only side in Week 1 to win all their games, and thus, are our current Premier League leaders. After a competitive first game (676‐664), Turu’s Knights easily marched past their opponents Royal Shock to score the only whitewash of Week 1; Games 2 & 3 finished 778‐726 & 756‐676 respectively. High bowlers from this match‐up were Turu’s Knights new acquisi‐ tion Tomas Caruso (557) and Royal Shock’s Joe Cassar (537).

SuperSonic 6‑2 BOV

Last season’s third‐place finish‐ ers started off this new campaign with 6 points against BOV. Despite winning Games 1 & 3 with relative ease, SuperSonic were unable to deny BOV’s 10‐pin win over them in Game 2. Results ended: 724‐ 672, 726‐736, 741‐666. High bowlers from this match‐up were Supersonic’s team captain Matthew Muscat (623) and BOV’s Nicholas Falzon (569).

Powerfruit 4‑4 Team Brunswick

Two of the top teams in the league, Powerfruit and Team Brunswick, faced off in their open‐ ing series of this new season and drew. Team Brunswick started out by winning their only game of the evening as Powerfruit’s slow start proved to be too drastic to overcome later on (675‐749). However, roles reversed in Game 2 as Powerfruit improved to a 744 game as Team Brunswick lost mo‐ mentum through their 701 out‐ put. Both teams ended with a bang, however, Powerfruit were the game victors after Game 3 with a score line of 810‐786. De‐ spite winning 2/3 games, Power‐ fruit scored less total pinfall than their opponents and lost the bat‐ tle over total pinfall by a measly 7 pins (2229‐2236). Therefore, Team Brunswick secured the draw. High bowlers from this match‐up were Philip Gruppetta (Powerfruit – 610) and the 2023 Top 24 winner Kayden Laganà (Team Brunswick – 680). While Laganà was the high bowler of the week, Team Brunswick also had the high female bowler of the week as Sue Abela scored a very respectable 569 3‐game series.

Therefore, the high bowlers for Week 1 of this Premier League campaign were the Team Brunswick duo of Kayden Laganà (680) and Sue Abela (569).